Ziyad Khaleel, also known as Khalil Ziyad, Ziyad Sadaqa, and Ziyad Abdulrahman, was a

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

-American al-Qaeda member, based in the United States, primarily in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. He had been identified as a "procurement agent" for Osama bin Laden, arranging the purchase and delivery of "computers, satellite telephones, and covert surveillance equipment" for the leadership of al-Qaeda, as well as administering a number of radical Islamic websites as webmaster, including the website of the Palestinian militant group

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...

. Among the cities in which he resided at various times were

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, Columbia and

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...

. In 1991, while living in Denver, he was vice president of the Denver Islamic Society. By 1994 he was residing in Detroit and his name and address were reflected in ledgers taken from the Al Kifah Refugee Center, a financial and strategic arm of al-Qaeda. Upon moving to Columbia, Missouri, he was known as Ziyad Khaleel, but began using the surname Sadaqa as early as 1996. That year he was a fundraiser and one of eight regional directors of the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), which the government later determined was a front for al-Qaeda and Hamas.Sandoval, Greg, "Olajuwon's Mosque Cited in Funding Link to Terrorists,"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', February 10, 2005, accessed January 21, 2010 Late in 1996 he bought a $7,500 INMARSAT

satellite telephone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio through orbiting satellites instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. The advantage of a ...

at the instruction of senior al-Qaeda lieutenant Khaled al-Fawwaz. He delivered the satellite telephone and a battery pack to bin Laden in Afghanistan in May 1998. Bin Laden used the phone to place phone calls around the world, directing al-Qaeda's operations and orchestrating the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. In 1998 and 1999, Khaleel lived in an apartment in the eastern part of Florida's

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

, near Orlando. The FBI investigated

Anwar al-Awlaki Anwar Nasser al-Awlaki (also spelled al-Aulaqi, al-Awlaqi; ar, أنور العولقي, Anwar al-‘Awlaqī; April 21 or 22, 1971 – September 30, 2011) was an American imam who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strik ...

, later linked to three of the 9/11 hijackers, the Fort Hood shooter, and the Christmas Day 2009 bomber, beginning in June 1999 through March 2000, after it learned he had been contacted by Khaleel.Schmidt, Susan
Imam From Va. Mosque Now Thought to Have Aided Al-Qaeda
''The Washington Post'', February 27, 2008, accessed November 20, 2009. On December 29, 1999, as he arrived in the

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

ian capital of Amman, local authorities arrested him on charges of being a procurement agent for bin Laden, but he was later released. In 2000 Khaleel lived in

Manchester, Missouri Manchester is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 18,333 at the 2020 census. History Manchester was named by an English settler after Manchester, England. Geography Manchester is located at (38.584244, -90. ...

, and attended Columbia College in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. Khaleel is now dead.U.S. v. Hamed, Government's Consolidated Response in Opposition to Defendants' Motions for Bill of Particulars, May 27, 2009, accessed January 21, 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khaleel, Ziyad American people of Palestinian descent People from Denver Muslim activists American al-Qaeda members Columbia College (Missouri) alumni People from Detroit People from Columbia, Missouri People from Orange County, Florida Year of birth missing Year of death missing Palestinian Muslim activists